Clicked on a link, have I been hacked?

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Clicked on a link, have I been hacked?

I was scrolling on reddit and clicked on link, it opened a new page land a pop up said YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED, you have 2 minutes until history is shared to contacts. I guess I sort of panicked and clicked the button it wanted and it took me to the App Store with an app I should download. It was at that point that I realised what had happened and closed the app and reddit. I then downloaded a bunch of antiviruses and scanned my phone and they said I had nothing. At the time of clicking the link my phone was one update away from the latest IOS update and I also quickly updated it. Would they have been able to hack me?

iPhone 13, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 4, 2025 1:29 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 4, 2025 1:48 AM in response to tana203

Re: “ I then downloaded a bunch of antiviruses and scanned my phone and they said I had nothing.”

iPhones are so locked down that viruses cannot spread from one app to another … and that “anti-virus” apps cannot scan for, or remove, viruses. I wouldn’t put much faith in any app whose vendor claimed that it could scan an iPhone for viruses and quarantine or remove them.

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Answer 2

Jan 4, 2025 1:43 AM in response to tana203

If you installed the app that the scam popup said to install, I would recommend removing that app from your phone. With extreme prejudice.

The popup message itself is unlikely to have “hacked” your phone. The scammers were counting on scaring you into installing an app that they could not install by themselves, into disclosing things like credit card information that they could not get for themselves, etc. In such fashion, you would unwittingly compromise your own security.

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Clicked on a link, have I been hacked?

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